


Flip a coin

by BarPurple



Series: Writer's Block [2]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alcohol, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, F/M, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-26
Updated: 2016-07-26
Packaged: 2018-07-26 23:40:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7594855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarPurple/pseuds/BarPurple
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>If I Drink This Beer - Will Chase</p>
    </blockquote>





	Flip a coin

**Author's Note:**

> If I Drink This Beer - Will Chase

Ursula had thrust twenty dollars at him and booted him out of the apartment. She wanted to watch a shark special on Discovery and didn’t want him making snarky comments, which if it was anything like the other fishy specials she’d watched was bound to happen.

He wasn’t sure why he gravitated toward “country” bars in this realm, but the music sounded familiar. Familiar; like a woman slamming the door in his face, though in his long life Ursula was the first one to do it literally as far as he could remember. 

He pulled his cell from his pocket and looked at the little screen. He’d noticed that these dohickies were very different outside Storybrooke. Obviously magic was holding the technology back. Henry had some interesting theories on that, it would be fun to talk to the boy about the newest iPad. Rumple’s thumb pressed the little button and called up his grandson’s number.

The phone went on the table as he finished his drink. The waitress swept by with a hollow smile and a “Want another honey?”

“Ye..yes please.”

Rumple bit his tongue and wondered if he’d ever be able to be in a tavern without stuttering. It had happened, even when he wasn’t scaly, had happened in the Rabbit Hole that time with….

He planted his elbows on the table and rubbed at his temples only to almost poke himself in the eye when the barmaid arrived with his drink. He pushed a five at her and nodded in thanks not trusting his tongue to form words without making him sound like a pathetic idiot again.

Why did people like these places? The bloody pirate certainly couldn’t get enough of them, and the dwarves enjoyed them. It was a place like this that Grumpy had met….

His picked up his cell and ran his thumb over the button that could call up contact details. He screwed his eyes shut and let his thumb move. When he opened his eyes Belle’s name shone up at him, that was muscle memory for you, not that much of a surprise she was the only person he had ever called or texted regularly, apart from Dove of course, now he might actually answer if he called, wouldn’t be much of a conversation, but y’know a friendly voice and all.

“Honey, looking at it won’t make it ring.”

Rumple blinked up at the barmaid who for some reason had brought him another beer. He frowned at the full glass she’d put in front of him.

“Happy hour, honey, pay for one you get two.”

“Oh, right, happy hour. Thank you.”

The barmaid dropped a quarter on the table as well. Rumple watched as it spun on its edge reflecting the neon lights from the beer adverts above the bar. It came to rest with a clatter, but before he could see which way it had landed the barmaid plucked it from the table and held it between her thumb and forefinger in front of his face.

“Flip it. Heads you call her, tails you don’t.”

Rumple carefully took it from her and gave her a weak smile.

“She doesn’t want to hear from me.”

The barmaid shrugged and walked away. Rumple stared at the full pint before him. If he drank this beer he’d call her no matter what a coin said. He’d phoned her before, from payphones, just to hear her say hello. She’d probably changed her number by now. He put his phone down and picked up the glass. A quarter of it vanished down his throat before he put it back on the table and looked at the coin in his fingers. What the hell? Heads he’d call her, tails he wouldn’t. 

The quarter flipped into the air reflecting red and green as the garish lights hit its surface. It dropped onto the table and rolled to a halt by his cell.


End file.
